Costa looks set to rile Starbucks with new ad campaign

08 March, 2011

Costa Coffee is taking on Starbucks again with a new advert, which claims that twice as many consumers prefer Costa to its rival.

The coffee chain’s biggest ever national advertising campaign, which will cover newspapers, online and outdoor sites, uses straplines such as ‘Sorry Starbucks, the people have voted. Again’, and ‘Voted the nation’s favourite coffee shop’.

The ad follows Costa’s controversial ‘7 out of 10 coffee lovers prefer Costa’ campaign, which, following several months of complaints from Starbucks, culminated in a landmark ASA ruling in Costa’s favour last summer.

Costa has based the claims for its latest ads on a survey conducted by Allegra Strategies, which found that, of 16,000 UK coffee drinkers, 54% named Costa as their favourite coffee shop, while 27% cited Starbucks.

Starbucks also fared badly in a survey by Ethical Consumer magazine, which named it the most unethical café chain in Britain because of its stance on workers’ rights and its political activities. AMT Coffee, which used only Fairtrade coffee and organic milk, was named the most ethical brand, with Costa Coffee in second place.